The only thing Waninkoko is famous for is not thinking before releasing things. He put out a USB.iso loader, for example, that made the pirating possible on a large scale and caused Nintendo to step up patching the Team Twiizers hacks. Don't paint him as a god! He didn't even make any "Custom Firmware", only a few patches to the wii's system menu.

Even worse, he's directly responsible for bricking hundreds of consoles due to shoddy code (his "custom updater" and "custom downgrader" saga; at one point running one of his tools bricked your console 100% of the time) and generally speaking hasn't made any contributions to homebrew, instead opting to cobble together pieces of homebrew code to make pirac^H^H^H^H^Hbackup tools, often without following the licences.

He's only jumping on the PS3 bandwagon to get some attention, which is something he loves. If he ever releases anything halfway meaningful for the PS3, I can pretty much guarantee it'll be a port or simple combination of existing tools in a slightly more "marketable" way, with a "healthy" dose of his sponsor's logos, as his Wii releases always have been.

True story: he released his USB loader about 20-30 days after someone actually wrote a high-speed USB driver, which was the final piece of the puzzle. For kicks, after his announcement but before the release, I proceeded to independently create an equivalent USB loader, to gauge how much work had to go into it. ~200 lines of code and 6 hours, not counting time spent writing a silly menu and slapping in logos.

Why is this modded troll? Anyone who follows the Wii homebrew scene knows Waninkoko has been very disruptive to people who want to write and run homebrew code without having anything to do with piracy.

See also for example this post [hackmii.com] from another Homebrew Channel developer. And this [hackmii.com] from marcan (presumably the parent) about how he wrote an USB loader in 6 hours just to show it's no big deal, given everything other people had already done.

Nah... I have followed the Wiiscene for quite some time (including the demise of TehSkeen, Marcan's whiny rants,etc ) and some "scene" guys are angry at Waninkoko/Wiigator, etc because they release stuff allowing to run backups.

See, there is a certain segment of the WiiScene which are a bunch of Mother Theressas and the only mention of backup launcher gets their panties in a bunch.

Other segment just do not see software itself as "evil" or bad and use whatever tools there are to increase the functionality of the console (as other person commented in this story for the PS3, it is good being able to rip your games into a USB drive).

Yeah, and I'm guessing that they're going to have another massive lawsuit on their hands if they follow through with their threats to disable portions of the PS3 as a response. It was questionable to say the least when they started releasing PS3s without all the chips that the first gen PS3s had, but now that they're apparently removing features from consoles that people have already purchased, they're going to be in a world of hurt.

Yes, that's what I was thinking as well! Who the hell are these idiots who seem not to know anything about which they submit stories?I admit I haven't RTFA, but I watched the video and it clearly is something workable by the means of a Firmware update. This war is as lost as the PSP war was before they found out about Pandora...

It's trivial - it's a hole in GameOS (lv-2), which is part of updates and nowhere near the early bootloaders. They're probably working through their very first case of "oh-shit-we-need-to-patch-this-now" bureaucracy. They'll get faster for upcoming iterations of the exploit-patch-release cycle.

You underestimate the consequences of this. To do anything exotic you would need to change the shellcode to launch your own unsigned bootloader instead of tricking the Sony system software into thinking we have a Jig; but if you do, you have complete control.

With more development, you could fake it perfectly - the PS3's own security capabilities (that were used to such effect in the OtherOS hypervisor that needed a hardware glitch to even come close to breaking) can also be used against it, to stealth DNAS

The exploit has nothing to do with Sony's service jig. It uses the service jig code as a handy way to stash 64 bytes into memory, but it neither passes jig auth nor does anything related to what the jig does at Sony's repair centers. In fact, I think the exploit could be reworked not to emulate a device with the jig's ID at all. The core exploit relies on random (non-specific unidentified vendor) USB devices with wacky descriptors.

The exploit also only has permissions at lv-2 level (GameOS). Breaking into lv-1 will require extra work, and breaking into the secure SPU is still impractical.

I am not at all convinced that is true. Pretty sure you don't have control over the hypervisor. And you certainly don't have any way to stop Sony from doing mandatory upgrades. Sure, you can take your own machine off the net, but new machines aren't going to be vulnerable.

To my knowledge it didn't though. The Pandora battery is what allows you to install custom firmware regardless it there is an official firmware on the unit in the first place.

Sony never released a firmware update that could patch that since it was on the battery. Their attempt to stop it was to release batteries that could not be used that way. Of course you can still get the batteries.

In the early days I absolutely remember that Sony released some official updates that prevented custom firmware for quit

That was not paranoia, but cold hard fact. Granted, it has been awhile, but since no executives went to Federal Pound Me In The Ass prison over it I doubt they learned their lesson. As supported by the facts, the corporate culture over at Sony has always been one that does not respect the consumer's rights or property in any way, shape, or form.

Unshockingly enough, Sony crushed a commercial seller of a PS3 mod device like a bug. Even if the law weren't probably unfavorable to the sellers, Sony probably could have just tied them up in injunctions forever anyway. Shocking.

Equally unsurprisingly, halting the distribution of some OSS software is going about as well as the fight against DVD Jon's little toy did. It's totally unwinnable, and Sony hasn't shown many clear signs of even trying. Shocking.

However, it isn't clear how much this matters. This isn't CSS, where the system was set in stone, millions of un-patchable, non-internet-connected hardware units were already in the wild, and team DRM pretty much just had to suck it up. Those were the good old days.

Sony controls the Playstation Network, and can enforce minimum software versions for access, or punitively lock out units. Even for offline users, individual game disks can mandate, and include, upgrades to a higher version. Sony has, certainly, lost the game against anyone content to just pick up an old PS3 fat on ebay and enjoy a pirated copy of every PS3 game to date, all for ~$200. You'll have to stay offline, and avoid games with mandatory upgrades; but not a bad deal on the whole, I can certainly see a fair few takers.

However, unless this USB hack is seriously powerful, exploiting some basically unblockable fundamental flaw in the PS3's design, all PS3s that ship more than a few weeks from now, are updated(manually or automatically) to the next firmware revision, or wish to play newer games or use newer peripherals, or play online, are back in Sony's camp. And, unlike a DVD or Blu-ray disk, where the plaintext copy, once created, is eminently playable on all sorts of 3rd party devices, general purpose computers, and whatnot, PS3 games are pretty much only playable on PS3s, pending substantial advances in computing power that will allow emulation. This isn't "hack once, run anywhere." Each individual PS3 is controlled separately, and the success of the hacking device depends on how many hackable PS3s remain in the wild, a variable over which Sony has substantial control...

However, it isn't clear how much this matters. This isn't CSS, where the system was set in stone, millions of un-patchable, non-internet-connected hardware units were already in the wild, and team DRM pretty much just had to suck it up. Those were the good old days.

Sony controls the Playstation Network, and can enforce minimum software versions for access, or punitively lock out units. Even for offline users, individual game disks can mandate, and include, upgrades to a higher version. Sony has, certainly, lost the game against anyone content to just pick up an old PS3 fat on ebay and enjoy a pirated copy of every PS3 game to date, all for ~$200. You'll have to stay offline, and avoid games with mandatory upgrades; but not a bad deal on the whole, I can certainly see a fair few takers.

Agreed. Unless we can get a free and open parallel Playstation Network for hacked consoles to make use of, it'll continue to be a arms race and Sony will ultimately have the upper hand due to owning and controlling the network. And it's a much taller order, both legally and technically, to provide such a network. And likely prohibitively expensive even if there weren't legal obstacles.

Exactly. I've been following this mod for exactly one reason: enabling PS2 games on PS3 versions which don't support that. Although having OtherOS to play with would be kind of neat (I have a slim, so I never had either feature.)

I don't pirate. I occasionally boycott a publisher, and then I simply do without their games (I'm looking at you, Ubisoft.) But I'd love to be able to disconnect my PS2 from my TV.

There have been some murmurs that this will be possible soon. The only question will be whether th

IF your machine doesnt have PS2 compatibility already, no amount of software is going to bring it back. PS2 emulation on PS3 has ALWAYS depended on at least part of the PS2 hardware being physically present.

You mean it adds back functionality that they used to include with the PS3. Don't forget that they have removed functionality from recent firmware editions as a response to the threat to their exclusivity. And the latest report is that the next firmware update is going to disable the USB ports. Sony has learned very little from getting clobbered over that rootkit they installed on computers as DRM.

"And the latest report is that the next firmware update is going to disable the USB ports"

BULLSHIT.

Sorry, but I have to call this one out for what it is.

The USB ports are how the controllers are used during certain updates or if they're out of power. The USB ports also are how you plug in things like the Playstation Eye, a peripheral that Sony themselves sell and are relying on for their "Move" push.

They will not now, nor ever, disable the USB ports, this is some sort of forum echo-chamber nonsense or an outright troll that's somehow gained credence.

Especially when an update to their USB driver will destroy this jailbreak just as well.

It has been years since I owned a console (Turbografx 16), after reading about the power of the Cell, I wanted to get a PS3. Not just for games but for Linux! However it turned out one couldn't full harness the power of the PS3 with Linux. So, I didn't get one. Thru the years, I'd check and see if any breakthrus were made or if Sony changed their stance. Well, with the release of the Slim models, the stance changed all right.

Since I own a N900 (Great hardware, great OS, great community! Nokia however is frustrating.) and seeing the release of PSFreedom was interesting to say the least. However at the moment all one can do is backup one's games. While it will be interesting to watch what happens in the homebrew scene, where does that leave those like myself that would want to do something legitimate with the PS3?

In my case, for years I've wanted to port KnoppMyth (now LinHES) to the PS3. Now, it seems that things maybe falling in place that would allow that. However thanks to corporate decisions and the law (DMCA), I probably won't be able to do so. Talk about crippling innovation.

Sony won because they managed to delay for nearly 4 years the break in the PS3 security, They are not losing money on the console right now, If this would happened early Sony could have lost a lot of money, losing possible game sales on people that probably never had the intention of buying a PS3 because it was not pirate ready is not significant in my opinion, pirates never intended to pay

Yup, even with the Xbox 360's RROD issues, I'm pretty confident that this had a BIG thing to do with the PS3's popularity among third party devs. Develop for the 360 when it had twice the user base, but get pirated 3/4rd of the time, or develop for the much smaller PS3 user base, but have 5 times the attach rate.

No brainer, so even when the PS3 looked like it would end up on life support, it was able to "recover" from that alone...

I don't know, I have a stack of Wii games, and I don't own a single PS3 game. In fact, as I look through my library of literally over a thousand original console games, a good 90% of the games were purchased for systems that had been hacked. Maybe I am really that unique of a human being... Somehow I doubt it though.

Part of that is that the most recent revisions are shy a few chips which the older ones had. And they didn't bother to advertise that the newer versions are essentially gimped so that they don't lose as much money on them. The Slim for instance had no other OS feature and had the chips for emulating both the PS and PS2 not included so that Sony could save a few dollars on production. And from what I gather, they'd removed the PS emulation from previous revisions as well.

Now that there is no unhacked console left, maybe the consolization of PC games will slow down a bit. And maybe Sony will finally release the PS4, so that PC graphics can finally move ahead. It has been 3 years since Crysis. PC games have been stalled in terms of graphics because the better the graphics are on the PC version the more difficult it is to port to the old tech on the consoles.

While there is piracy on the consoles it isn't like the pc where most of the people playing the games aren't paying for them.

Yes. But until now, piracy on consoles has required hardware modifications, or at least unauthorized firmware updates that have a non-zero chance of bricking your console. This is now changing. IUIC, this hack allows you to run pirate games without modifying your console, just by hooking an external device (that large numbers of people already have) up to its USB port.

Gaming site eXophase claims that, since Sony released firmware update 3.42 earlier today, it has been able to verify that "all variants of the USB-hub emulating exploit (PSFreedom, PSGroove, PSJailbreak) are no longer functional"

Given what Sony did by removing the "other OS" feature after it was used for a hack, I think I can safely say that there is no way you cannot trust Sony not to retrospectively kill other features later. I don't hack my PS/3, but the "other OS" feature was a reason for me to buy it, so the "upgrade" isn't (and has thus not happened) because I refuse to pay the price for something I didn't do, and lose a feature I PAID FOR and which is on the product description.

Imagine what happens if someone finds a way to hack the box via a movie feature - given their approach to "other OS" it is not totally bizarre to expect them to nuke the "play video" feature in a next release, so thanks Sony, but there is not going to be another penny spent on anything PS/3, or anything else that is remote changeable. Quite simply, the PS/3 as a product is dead to me, and research for any new kit (whatever type) will certainly not begin with Sony.

If a company cannot take into account a certain amount of customisation when it gets a device out in public it suggests it is totally hopeless at both market analysis and crisis management. To me, that spells "incompetence".

You're making a whole lot of assumptions. Following the news of this exploit, there's been no evidence of reaction from Sony beyond the lawyer attacks on distributors. It's true the commercial product is designed for backups (which may be used for piracy, but aren't necessarily), but it does allow adding other code - including homebrew. There simply isn't any around yet. I've been looking into the code injected to see if I can figure out a way to replace it with a Linux bootloader, and so far, this looks doable (but far from easy).

So, 1) this is not *just* used for pirating. 2) that is not all it allows. 3) you're the first I've seen spouting the rumour of people being banned from PSN for this. 4) Sony went right ahead and "ruined" the console months ago.Sony have taken a surprisingly long time to react on the firmware side of things - they were quicker than this to kill Other OS when they weren't even threatened and knew the attack would have no positive effect.I have been effectively banned for much less reason, however - insisting on keeping functionality I bought the machine for. SCE started the attack on me back in April, and I'm trying to regain what they've unrightfully removed.

If SCE had any interest in goodwill, they could release an update that reenables Other OS. Contrary to some spurious claims, the function required no extra work on their part - they only made changes to it to prevent Linux from getting "too good" at graphics, which is frankly laughable. It also didn't need removal to fit newer features, as it only existed on models with larger flash in the first place. If Other OS continued working as it should, I'd have no reason to spend so much effort on these exploits.

Because there's tons of free and useful software for the iPhone. While there may be some for the PS3, it's definitely not a multi-purpose device.

I haven't seen a lot of useful stuff in the Cydia store. There are a handful of moderately useful things, hundreds of themes, and a lot of stuff which, by all appearences, is pretty useless and would probably be approved by Apple if the developer bothered to submit it.

There isn't much available for the PS3 right now because the jailbreak just freaking happened. Give it time. If someone can port a decent media center (like XBMC) to the PS3, that alone would be reason enough to mod it. Not to mention, as I posted elsewhere, the possibility of restoring OtherOS and PS2 emulation.

PS2 emulation was only removed from the PS3 models that lack the necessary hardware pieces, so I don't know how it could possibly be restored. I don't think the PS3 is powerful enough to enable 100% software emulation, else Sony would have done it a long time ago and saved themselves a lot of money in the process.

You don't suppose the fact that Sony requires developers to pay them for the privilege and that up until now there's been no way of developing for it? It seems a bit premature to make that sort of assertion given the limited opportunity to do homebrew for the PS3. Even when the other OS feature was still there, if I'm not mistaken, you couldn't make use of the entire PS3.

Intended purpose. If both systems had no restrictions on software that was run, what would most people install that is not currently allowed. I'd argue that iphone would get more freeware/ custom software not allowed in the store. For the playstation, one can not honestly argue that most people would use the new openness for home brewed games and alternative operating systems.
However, I do agree that in principle it is the same thing: allowing the owner of a piece of hardware run the software of his choos

The PSJailbreak has nothing to do with jailbreaking. Just because they took the term and used it doesn't mean this is morally, technically, or practically equivalent or even remotely similar to iPhone jailbreaks.

Yeah, I suppose I've heard of chroot jails as a concept. I'm not sure I'm willing to concede that jailbreaking is that specific a term. Also it doesn't have much bearing on the whole "iPhone hack good, ps3 hack bad" aregument that seems to have kicked off.

"I think most people (not most technical people) would disagree. The primary goal of jailbreaking an iPhone is probably not piracy. The primary goal of modding consoles tends to be piracy."

I'm not sure what side of the pond you're on, but here in the U.S. about the only legitimate way to use an iPhone is not only to buy into Apple's hubris, but to buy into AT&T's also. Many people jailbreak iPhones so they can use T-Mobile or some other carrier, and from all reports I've heard they're better off for doing it.

I'm not going to deny the fact this is primarily for pirating; however the how banning on PSN is based off Sony detecting the app running on the console from the 'hack' program. If I read sources correctly the FOSS version allows you to change the AppID or naming on the console to the actual game's, which looks legit to Sony/PSN and circumvents their "protections."

There is no "cheap" Cell SDK that is usable for the PSJailbreak. It allows booting apps... that were compiled using the leaked official SDK (much like the "Backup Manager" that they offer was). There are no libraries in existence currently that would enable people to compile for the PS3 using GCC and the like, and the PSJailbreak also does not allow reinstatement of Other OS because they blew their chance at incorporating that functionality into the dongle, and it can't be done using purely application soft

Technically, the exploit allows the execution of arbitrary code, there's even a fork of PSGroove that's a rewrite to make changing the payload easier. Also, PSGroove doesn't support the backup manager as is (though it's trivial to make it do so), while still allowing the installation of arbitrary PKG files.

Literally, now that homebrew is possible, it's just a matter of time until there's an SDK that produces package files compatible with dev kit mode and thus an unmodified PSJailbreak.

Let's at least be a little bit honest. Maybe the ability to install Linux on a PS3 was a big deal around here, but for the vast majority of people buying one it's not even on their radar. There's a least a sizable number of these people who have either never heard of Linux or have no real understanding of what it actually is.

I don't expect that Sony will lose many sales over this. Considering that they may still be selling it at a loss and hoping to make up for it in game sales may actually net them more

Considering that they may still be selling it at a loss and hoping to make up for it in game sales may actually net them more money as there were at least a few people who were using them to make clusters.

A single USAF HPC was built from 2,0000 PS3s. Blunderingly, Sony Nukes PS3 Supercomputing [hothardware.com] Purchases on that scale take product off retail shelves and return nothing to Sony but unbankable good will.

Sony took a brief swing at commercializing PS3 tech for post-production video. Zego [wikipedia.org] When the OtherOS cannabi

Those who have used them have already been banned from PSN and multiplayer games. What a great way to ruin your expensive console.

Not everybody's idea of an enjoyable gaming experience involves trading insults with hormonal 15 year-olds, nor does $300 meet everyone's definition of "expensive." Jailbreaking is appropriate for anyone who either doesn't care about online features, can afford two consoles, or both. I suspect that's a not-insignificant portion of current and potential owners.

I think, at this point it is supposition that Sony can detect the use of a backup. If they can, how does that make you feel if you legitimately own a game and back it up? More importantly, what else do they know about you and what are they doing with that information? I'm not talking about piracy, I'm talking about your rights as a consumer and your rights online.

First of all, this is just used for pirating purposes. In fact that's the only thing the hack allows, so drop the homebrew bullshit.

Pardon? I have no interest in either pirating OR homebrew. I just want to load the games that I bought onto the console to improve load times, avoid disc damage from handling, and keep all my games available at all times. What's the point of a 250GB drive it all I have on it are dinky PSN games?

"These hacks are fully detectable by PS3 and Sony." Only if the system is online....which most people already know and thanks to the ability to download the ps3 updates to a usb means you never have to connect your console to the Sony servers. "this is just used for pirating purposes" Welcome to the game of consumer desire and business ethics. You can buy something now and it is not legally your property. You are not allowed any freedoms with something you paid your money for. If this jailbreak allowed peop

If I can pick up a PS3 for $299CDN and use is as a HTPC, screw games. If after it's hacked I can play one out of 1000 games then I'm cool with that. The slim ones look cool enough have ethernet, HDMI and other jacks and most HTPC's will set you back $400+ from scratch (especially if you want a decent looking case). So if they get access to the GPU then I'll get one and the PSN will never get a ping from me.

They didn't bully anyone int giving up Linux, they just flat out took it away. YOINK!If you were bullied into giving it up, that presumes you'd had a choice, even if it means you would get beaten up if you didn't comply.

I'm a full time linux user and I also own a ps3 for two years now. However, I never tried to install linux on it because it does it's job well for what I can't do on my linux system - play games. I wouldn't be surprised if most slashdotters that posted so far don't even use linux on their desktop let alone own a ps3. So what's up with the hate?

From your point of view they took away a feature you never used. Now imagine Dell forced a new BIOS that would disable Linux from booting on your PC. Because "nobody uses linux". What would you say then?

I bought the PS3 for 3 things, linux, movies and games.

I used my PS3 as a thin client mostly. But also as a media center. But now thats no longer possible.

I have the choice to not update. If I don't, I don't get PSN. That's fine.

In 2 months, there will be games which won't function unless they're booted on the newest firmware. That's not fine. Now I have a PS3 which won't play every PS3 game unless I update the firmware and lose features. Sony is holding functionality which I purchased hostage. T